Looking Ahead

Babies only look ahead to having their next diaper change or satisfying their hunger.

Toddlers look ahead to when their parent will get home or pick them up from childcare, or when their next meal will be served.

Young children look ahead to recess time, weekends, or special events like holidays. 

As they grow older they look ahead to the next year of school and start to think about what they want to be when they grow up.

Teenagers look ahead to what will happen when they graduate. Will they go to college? Get married and have kids? What will their careers be?

Adults in their 20s may still wonder about getting married (if they haven’t done that already,) and what will happen with their careers in the future. Will they own their own homes? 

As people move through adulthood they realize they’ll eventually become old and need to prepare for retirement. They look ahead at decades.

And once they do become old they wonder what it will be like to become disabled and unable to live independently. And they may look ahead to life after death.

And they (or perhaps I should say, we) spend a lot less time thinking about the future and focus on enjoying life as it is in the present.

Perhaps people should do more of that at every age.